Hey, everyone. WaterDragonMaverick here with another chapter of "Sideline: Another Story". Last time, we wrapped up the Notremodo storyline by fighting off against a giant Gargoyle and showing Pierre as a hero. Now with Fragment Hunter on a ship bound for Anima, they'll get closer to the village of Mirabelle and get Lapis the help she needs to restore her vision. However, a mysterious woman on a tricked-out motorcycle is following them and seems to be after Lapis for herself. Who could this be? You'll find out soon enough!
Set sail!
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and was created by Monty Oum (R.I.P)
I only own my Original Characters featured in this fic.
After leaving the harbor at Notremodo, the members of Fragment Hunter were taking the time to relax after everything that happened over the past few days. Most of them were enjoying the ocean breeze, having small talks with the other passengers or crew members, or just getting rest in their cabins. Azalea made her way back up to the deck after making sure Slate was sleeping to get his seasickness under control. When she did, she passed by Vinyl and Gin, who were listening to music and working on some sort of weapon Gin brought with him. Deciding to leave them alone to work, she went to talk with Sunset and Pinkie. "Well, Slate's in his room now. He should be fine after the medicine I gave him, but he needs rest," Azalea told the girls.
"Did he get sick on that boat at Port Mako, too," Sunset questioned.
"Yeah, he did," Azalea replied before turning her attention to Pinkie. "Why aren't you getting seasick, Pinkie?"
"I don't know," the pink-haired girl said with a carefree smile on her face. "I'm probably just not the type to get seasick. Hey, where are your parents," Pinkie asked while she looked around the deck.
"If I know them, they're probably enjoying some 'privacy' in their own room. Hopefully, they don't bother anyone," Azalea said while trying to avoid the thought of her parents and their current activity, otherwise she would feel just as sick as Slate was.
"Well, we're nearly to Mirabelle. Just a little while longer, then Lapis will be able to see again," Sunset said as she looked over at the blue-haired girl she mentioned. Lapis was sitting in a chair and just felt a cool breeze against her face before the three went to speak with her. "Lapis, you feeling alright?"
Lapis nodded before she answered Sunset. "Yeah, I'm okay. I just wanted to feel the breeze. At least, I can do that."
"You'll be okay. Doctor Whitethorn will be able to get your vision back," Azalea said.
"Thanks, Azalea," Lapis said as she tried to look at Azalea in the face.
"If you could see more than blurs, I wouldn't have to say that you're staring at my chest," Azalea said in a deadpan tone.
"Sorry," Lapis said as she waved a hand in front of her face. "This is just going to be annoying for everyone. I just hope my sister doesn't find out about this."
"Sister," Pinkie questioned.
"Yeah, my older sister, Lazuli. She's five years older than me, so she already graduated from Beacon," Lapis said as she talked about her sister. "After our dad died helping miners, she was really protective of me. No matter what happened, she'd always try and keep an eye on how I was doing. If she finds out that I'm basically blind right now, she'd never let me go anywhere."
"I know how an older sibling can feel," Pinkie said. "Slate was always making sure I didn't get in trouble back in Vacuo's deserts. I can't remember all the times he's saved me from Misery's Kiss, Sudden Demise, and Lasting Regret."
The other girls were confused by what Pinkie meant before Sunset snapped her fingers and recognized what Pinkie was saying. "Oh right, Miss Celeste taught me about some terms that people from Vacuo have for things. 'Wasting Winds' is a sandstorm, 'Misery's Kiss' means sunstroke, 'Sudden Demise' is a giant sinkhole, and 'Lasting Regret' is food poisoning."
"Those last two sound really appropriate," Azalea remarked.
Pinkie nodded before she kept talking. "While he was able to keep me safe, it was always annoying when he stuck to me like glue. Seriously, I want to date people, but I'm pretty sure he'll be glaring at them the whole time."
"I'm pretty sure he doesn't want some guy that just wants to brag about getting with a cute girl to break his sister's heart," Sunset stated.
"I can understand that, but I still want to try getting a date," Pinkie exclaimed. "Maybe when we get to Mirabelle, I can actually search for one instead of raiding Slate's magazines."
"He has those kinds," Azalea asked out of curiosity rather than anger or jealousy.
"Oh yeah," Pinkie told the Cow Faunus. "Most of the girls in them were kind of like you," she said gesturing to her chest area. "In fact, I think he keeps one that one with you on him most of the time."
Hearing that Slate kept the magazine from the photoshoot with Bianca, Azalea laughed to herself before looking out to the sea. Just as she did, Sunset noticed something. "Hey, what's that?"
"Don't ask me," Lapis grumbled as she leaned back in her chair and covered herself completely with a blanket. "I'll just stay here and take a nap."
"Well, let's go check it out. Some of the other passengers seem to be," Azalea said as she saw a number of people heading in the same direction.
Sunset, Pinkie, and Azalea all went over to the stern of the boat to get a better look and saw some sort of watercraft approaching them. "Who could be piloting that sort of thing this way," Azalea questioned as the crowd slowly grew and even some crew members went to investigate.
Suddenly, the blue watercraft sped up and got closer to the boat. "What are they doing," asked a crewman when they saw the speeding craft. As they got closer, the person riding the watercraft held out their arm and the water in front of them began to rise. Making a fist soon after, the water froze into ice that created a ramp and the pilot went at top speed. Everyone watching was shocked to see what the pilot was doing and they watched as the vehicle jumped off the ramp and began to reach the ship's deck. While it was in the air, the watercraft soon changed into a motorcycle and skid across the deck of the ship as it landed.
Stepping off of the bike, the rider turned their attention to the small crowd while Pinkie, Sunset, and Azalea looked at the newcomer. The rider was a woman that stood at 6'2" and had an hourglass figure with large breasts, wide hips, and a toned waist. Aside from the helmet she was wearing, she wore a teal top underneath a royal blue leather jacket with gold details, scale-print leggings, fashionable combat boots, and a shark tooth necklace. The helmet had an emblem on the sides that looked like a mermaid holding a jar, but the crowd thought it was a customized look instead of a brand's logo. "I'm looking for somebody," the woman said to the crowd as she stepped away from her bike, which Azalea and Sunset saw was a customized version of the same model that Yang Xiao Long rode. "Has anybody seen this girl," the rider asked as she showed a picture of Lapis Ondine that was taken during the Vytal Festival Tournament.
While the crowd was murmuring to themselves, Azalea and Sunset immediately got suspicious. "Why are you looking for her," Sunset asked with a glare in her eye.
"That's none of your concern, Flame Brain," the masked rider said as she stood above the two girls questioning her.
"It's our concern if you make an entrance like that and start asking where a certain somebody is," Sunset countered as she crossed her arms.
While Sunset and Azalea stared down the mysterious rider, Pinkie and some children were curious about the customized bike. "I wouldn't touch Lorelei if I were you," warned the rider as she held out her hand toward the bike. "She has a couple of other features that I don't want you messing with," she said before steam rose from the water on the bike, scaring the kids away while Pinkie stood her ground.
"Wow! How are you doing that," Pinkie asked as she looked at the steam coming off of the bike. "Is this your Semblance or something?"
"Stay away," the rider warned as the steam began to condense and freeze into sharp icicles that began to drop down toward Pinkie, but the girl dodged the ice before it could touch her.
Before the woman could lower her hand, Azalea immediately grabbed her wrist and tightened her grip on the stranger. "You shouldn't have done that," the Cow Faunus said with a glare in her green eyes.
"Leave now," Sunset told the rider. "Before things get ugly," she added while her jacket's sleeves began to light up.
The woman noticed the glow of Sunset's jacket and shook her head as she pulled her arm out of Azalea's grip. "A Dust user, huh? Well, you've just picked a fight with the wrong person," she said as she pulled out a strange item from under her jacket. It was black and rectangular with a series of silver tubes, two slots on the front, a large gear connected to a crank handle, and had an emblem that matched the one on her helmet along with an emblem that resembled a rabbit's head with tank guns for ears. She placed the device on her waist and a strap soon came out of the device to connect onto her like a belt. As soon as the strap connected, a voice seemed to come from the belt.
"DUST DRIVER, ON!"
Hearing the sudden voice surprised and confused the crowd while the rider pulled out two unique-looking vials of Dust. Sunset and Azalea could tell that they were Water Dust from the blue color, but were wondering why the woman began to shake the vials for a few seconds. When she stopped shaking the vials, she placed them into the slots of the belt and it began to 'speak' again as she did.
"WATER! WATER! TWIN MATCH! GET READY!"
When the belt stopped speaking, the woman began to turn the crank and everyone watched as the tubes on the device began to turn blue. As they did, water began to swirl around her and everyone backed away. When she stopped turning the crank, she got into a battle stance and only said one word. "Transform!" When she said it, the water that swirled around her began to splash onto her and solidify into a type of armor while the belt spoke once again.
"DRIPPING, DROPPING, SPLASHING! CASCADE! OH, YEAH!"
As the armor formed, one final splash of seafoam exploded off of the woman and revealed the armor's appearance. The armor was mainly varying shades of blue in color and looked like it was made for mobility. On the arms, legs, and chest were designs that resembled mermaid tails while pieces of the armor on the hands resembled shells and the boots had fin-like pieces on the heels. The helmet of the armor had large white lenses that made people think of a bug, a headpiece that resembled a trident or a tiara, and the full suit looked like it could allow her to breathe underwater.
Everyone was in awe of the armor forming on the woman, but Sunset immediately started by throwing a fireball at the armored woman. However, she saw the attack coming and backhanded the flames away with a splash of water coming off of her armor's shell gauntlet. "You're going to have to try better than that," the masked rider said as she slowly walked toward Sunset.
"Guys! There's somebody here and they're after Lapis! Protect her at all costs," Sunset told the rest of Fragment Hunter with her Semblance's telepathy before she got ready to fight the armored woman and the crowd backed away for safety. The two got closer to each other before Sunset made the first move with a punch to the masked warrior's face, but the blue armored fighter deflected the attack and easily countered with a punch of her own. As she did, water splashed from the impact and soaked Sunset's face. Spitting out the water, Sunset glared before the unknown woman threw another punch before kicking Sunset back and making her slide against the deck of the ship. "What's with this woman," Sunset exclaimed as she got back up. "Time to get serious," she said to herself as her jacket's sleeves began to glow from the Fire Dust in them.
The woman watched as Sunset's body began to emit steam from the Fire Dust in her jacket activating and evaporating the water off her. When Sunset's hands were ablaze, the masked rider only got into a defensive stance. Sunset let out a battle cry as she threw a punch at her opponent, but the armored fighter deflected it before Sunset kicked at them. As the fighter backed away after being hit, Sunset threw a fireball at them which was blocked easily. However, Sunset only used it as a distraction so she could get closer and punch the mysterious woman in the stomach. Groaning as she backed away, the masked woman looked at Sunset. "Smart girl. But not good enough," the blue armored fighter said.
Sunset drew her sword and ran for a slash, only to find her opponent suddenly created a trident out of water. "What the heck," Sunset exclaimed before she was disarmed and nearly hit with the sharpened prongs of the watery weapon. As the fighter kept Sunset at a distance, Sunset didn't watch where she was going and soon bumped against the railing. "Oh crap," Sunset said to herself as she looked down at the water and her opponent made their next move.
The woman threw the trident and forced Sunset to duck before she grabbed the girl and threw her into the closest wall. Continuing her attack, she punched Sunset twice with more splashes of water coming off her hands before kicking her away with a bigger splash sending her skidding across the deck. "I think it's time I ended this," the woman said as she turned the crank of her belt. As she did, the tubes of the device began to glow blue and the belt spoke again.
"GET SET! DUST IMPACT! YEAH!"
With the belt announcing an attack name of sorts, the masked fighter began to fly forward as jets of water shot from pieces of her armor, closing the gap between her and Sunset. When she got close enough, she flipped in the air and delivered a powerful axe kick aimed at Sunset's head. When the armored fighter's foot made contact, a surge of water shot out and hit Sunset hard enough that she compared it to Terracotta's training sessions. After the splash, Sunset's Aura broke and she coughed up more water. "So much for the girl who thought she could take me," the fighter said before she felt a hand on her shoulder. Turning around to see who it was, she saw it was Azalea and immediately got punched in the face by the Cow Faunus. "Ow! That's some punch," she remarked before watching Azalea pull out one of her batons.
"You won't get away with going after my friends," Azalea said as she glared at the armored woman, began to make her next move. Running toward Azalea, the masked rider began to throw punches that the Faunus girl blocked with her vambraces. As water splashed everywhere, the woman noticed that Azalea wasn't getting soaked from the attacks. Azalea then grabbed at the woman's arm with her free hand and Gladion began to spark with electricity. Striking at the fighter's exposed body, Azalea was able to deal more damage as the electricity surged through the armored woman. "How do you like this," Azalea shouted as she ended her assault with a strong kick to the woman's stomach and sent her flying over the railing into the ocean.
After splashing down into the water, the masked rider suddenly shot back out and landed on the deck with her armor soaking wet. Azalea didn't question how she was able to do it and only focused her Semblance into her hand to fire a beam of electricity at her opponent, shocking her enough that the armor vanished with a final splash. "Okay, you're good," the woman stated as she saw her wasn't in her Dust armor anymore. "I guess I'll need another strategy," she said as she replaced the vials of Dust in her belt with two new ones, making the device speak again.
"GRAVITY! WIND! MIX MATCH! GET READY!"
Turning the crank of the belt again, the woman began to levitate from gravity changing where she stood as the tubes of the device turned blackish purple and white. As she floated off the air a bit, wind circled around her and blew around the area, making Azalea's hair flow. When the helmeted woman stopped turning the crank, she got into another fighting stance as she only said one word. "Transform!"
"SPEEDING THROUGH THE SKY! JETSTREAM! OH, YEAH!"
Another suit of armor formed on the woman, but it was different from the previous one made of Water Dust. The main body of this new 'Jetstream' armor was black and purple, the arms had white wing designs on the vambraces, the hands and boots had purple arrow designs, the legs had white designs that resembled a typical drawing of a tornado, and the helmet had red lenses with a look that resembled a pilot's helmet. "Time to see if you can handle this form," the masked rider said as she floated off of the ground once again.
Azalea looked at the armor and saw that it could be more trouble for her than the 'Cascade' form that defeated Sunset. Stomping her armored foot to eject her second copy of Gladion, Azalea set the two batons to Wind and Gravity for herself and placed them in her greave. Using her Semblance with the Dust she selected, Azalea began to float in the air as well just as more people gathered to see what was happening. "You're not the only one who can fly with Dust," Azalea stated.
The two women stared each other down before they took to the air above the ship. Everyone turned their attention to the sky as the two clashed with each other in aerial combat with only their fists and feet. The masked fighter proved to be faster and more agile than Azalea, but the Cow Faunus powered through her attacks and delivered stronger blows of her own. When the armored woman went in for another wind-enhanced punch, Azalea grabbed at their arm before throwing her toward the water. "Not this time," the masked woman exclaimed as she used wind from her feet to send her flying back up toward Azalea to throw a powerful punch to her stomach. As Azalea was dazed from the attack, the woman flipped around and delivered a strong heel drop to send Azalea plummeting down to the water.
Splashing into the sea, Azalea felt her Aura take most of the impact without breaking. Opening her eyes to see around her, she watched as the ship passed overhead while some dolphins swam past her. Grabbing onto one that approached her in concern, the marine animal breached the water's surface next to the ship and soon provided more help by throwing Azalea into the air by using its tail like a catapult. "Thank you, Miss Dolphin," Azalea shouted as she waved to the helpful creature. "Now for that Dust armor woman," Azalea said to herself as she used her Dust to get back onboard.
Everyone was shocked to see Azalea make an entrance like she did, including the armored woman after she saw everything from above. "Okay, I'll admit I wasn't expecting the dolphin to help you out," she remarked.
"Let's just say animals like me," Azalea said as she pulled out one of Penny's swords, thankful that none of the weapons she had with her were lost in the ocean.
The woman soon formed a kukri by solidifying wind that circled around her and got into a fighting stance. Azalea glared at the woman before they took to the air once again and clashed weapons. Azalea's strength was able to push back the masked fighter when their blades locked with each other, but the armored woman was able to deflect and dodge Azalea's attacks when the Cow Faunus went in for the attack. As the battle went on, Azalea felt her Dust supply running low when the wind keeping her in the air was dying down. Deciding to end this, she swung her sword once again in order to fake out her opponent. Immediately putting it away, she grabbed at the woman's legs and stopped using her Dust supply. Azalea's weight soon disrupted the woman's own flight and the two came crashing down toward the ship's deck. While Azalea's Aura broke from the impact, the woman was only dazed from the crash and had her armor intact. "Well, that hurt," the woman stated as she picked herself up.
Immediately after getting up, the woman was shocked when she saw Azalea throw a punch that not only broke through her Dust armor, but also knocked off her motorcycle helmet and made it clatter across the deck of the ship before stopping at the feet of one of the passengers. "Just who are you," Azalea demanded as the woman stood up and several members of Fragment Hunter arrived at the scene.
The woman turned to face Azalea and surprised the members of Fragment Hunter when they saw her. Without her hair held inside her helmet, the teenagers saw the blue color and noticed it reached her waist. They also saw she had blue eyes and silvery-blue fish scales on her face to indicate she was a Faunus. But the biggest shock to them was that even with the scales, she looked just like Lapis Ondine. "What's going on? After you guys left, I hear all that fighting and my team starts bodyguarding me," Lapis said as she made her way over to the crowd. Looking at the woman in front of them, Lapis immediately seemed to tell who it was even with her bad vision. "Lazuli? How did you get here?"
"Lapis! There you are," the woman exclaimed as she approached the girl and hugged her tightly. "I have to miss the Vytal Festival because of a mission and when I return to Vale, I see that everything was a mess when there was an attack on Beacon! Not only that, but you got injured! If Mom found out about all of this, she would have had a heart attack!"
The members of Fragment Hunter were surprised at the woman's change in attitude. "So, this is your sister, Lapis," Sunset asked as she looked at the two girls.
"Yup. This is my sister, Lazuli Ondine," Lapis answered.
After all the chaos from the fight against Lazuli and an apology to the ship's crew, the members of Fragment Hunter made their way to the cabins and began to talk to the elder Ondine sister. "And after questioning some people in Notremodo, I made my way here with my bike. I made a few improvements on it with the help of an inventor from Mantle," Lazuli explained.
"You made a bike that can change into a watercraft? That's awesome," Percival said.
"What was with all that Dust armor and the belt," Sunset questioned.
"Oh, yeah. That's my newest reward," Lazuli said as she pulled out the item she used before. "It's called the Dust Driver. It's an experimental item that allows anybody to create armor out of Dust for defense and enhancing attacks. Got it from the same guy that helped with my bike."
"And it talks because..."
"Oh, he just thought it would be fun," Lazuli answered as she waved her hand. "While anybody can use it, I seem to have the easiest time doing so because of my Semblance," she continued while holding out a glass of water and pouring it onto the floor, where everyone watched it freeze into a block of ice instead of splashing everywhere. "I can change the state of matter of any element and reshape it. Really helpful for controlling the armors of the Dust Driver and making new weapons to fight with."
Pinkie had stars in her eyes as she saw Lazuli demonstrate her abilities further by instantly changing the ice into a puff of steam. "You're so cool," Pinkie voiced to the elder Ondine sister.
"So, if anybody had a Semblance that worked well enough with Dust, they'd have an easier time using it," Celadon questioned.
"Probably," Lazuli responded.
"You know, it would be cool to see Weiss' glyphs move across her and form the armor," Silver remarked.
"Weiss Schnee? I didn't think she would have gotten along with you guys," Lazuli said. "I've met her sister before and if you haven't gotten to know her, she's rather... icy."
"Booo," Vinyl responded to the pun.
"If I knew it was you, we could have solved everything quicker," Gin Aurum stated. "We were classmates back at Beacon."
"Oh, you and I know we were more than that for a while," Lazuli told Gin, making him blush at the memory.
Before anyone could question them about it, Terracotta and Ivy arrived. "We heard about what happened," the Bull Faunus said as he looked at his daughter and Lazuli Ondine.
"And what was stopping you from showing up," Rua asked, but knew the obvious answer when she and the others saw the lipstick smudge on Terracotta's face.
"We should be arriving at our destination soon," Ivy told them. "After that, it'll still be a while before we reach Mirabelle."
"As long as we don't have to walk across the entire continent on foot," said Celadon. "Just thinking about that makes my feet hurt."
Everyone soon started to talk about how they were one step closer to helping Lapis recover by getting to Azalea's hometown. The Cow Faunus herself was happy that she was returning home, but still wished it was under better circumstances as she looked at Lapis and one of Penny's swords. Slate, Sunset, and Bianca all sat by Azalea as they knew what she was probably thinking. Being surrounded by people she cared about, Azalea smiled as she looked at them. She knew that when they stepped off the ship, their journey would continue onward. However, somebody passed by the cabin with heavy footsteps and a jacket with the word 'Carnage' written in crimson letters.
Okay. With this chapter, we've begun reaching Fragment Hunter's "Anima Arc" and they'll be on land in the next chapter. We also met Lapis' sister, who was mentioned before. Lazuli was a fun new addition I wanted to make, but her weapon was a challenge until I thought about how Dust could work in a new way for Remnant. So that's when I decided on a Kamen Rider shout-out for Lazuli with her tricked-out bike and the "Dust Driver". For those wondering which Kamen Rider her belt is based on, it's similar to the Build Driver from Kamen Rider Build. And I have plenty of "forms" for Lazuli to use when the time calls for them.
With a new ally helping them on their way to Mirabelle, what will be in store for Fragment Hunter next time? There's still a distance between their next stop and their destination. Plus, the one character I gave a cameo to at the end of the "Beacon Arc" is on the same ship. Will there be trouble with them? We'll just have to stick around and find out what our heroes will get into during their winter.
I'm happy to finish this new chapter and one of RWBY Rangers by my 25th birthday. I'm going to try posting more of both soon after, but I'll get to it when I can because life and work happens. Until next time, WaterDragonMaverick signing out.